Seven Things You Didn’t Know Were In The Senate Health Bill

The “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act” — better known as the Senate health care overhaul bill – is chock full of interesting but little publicized provisions affecting consumers. Sure, the bill is mainly a blueprint for overhauling the insurance system. But look closely and you’ll see a variety of items that would affect people from the cradle to old age – from breast pump use to retiree health benefits. It’s a congressional tradition, adding pet interests that otherwise might not pass to a big bill that at least will be put up for a vote. Yes, there’s plenty of time to change the bill. But political analysts say a final overhaul bill would more likely look like this measure than the version already approved by the House because Senate Democrats barely could agree on sending it to the floor for debate. In short, there’s not much political room for major changes. Here are some examples of what lies in this 2,074-page bill…